Health ministry backs use of PET medicine bottles

Plastic bottles safe for packing drugs, NGT told (Getty Images)NEW DELHI: India’s health ministry said plastic PET bottles can be used as a container for medicines as a high-level committee had vouched for their safety.

But a more definitive decision could depend on the fate of a case in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against the material over concerns that it may be hazardous for children and pregnant women.

“There is no conclusive, reproducible evidence to suggest that use of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) or the additive used with it such as antimony, for pharmaceutical packaging may leach substance(s) beyond limits that pose threat to human health,” he said in the response, citing the committee’s recommendations.

This contradicts the view of India’s apex drug standard advisory body. The Drugs Technical Advisory Board had in May called for a ban on PET for bottling medicines used by children and pregnant women after a health ministry mandated Plastic Hazard Committee concluded that it leached chemicals like lead, antimony and chromium as the weather grew warmer.

This committee’s findings were based on a study conducted by the commerce ministry’s National Test House (NTH). Drug companies use the material as it’s lighter and cheaper than glass besides being less prone to breakage, making pharmaceuticals a key market for the Rs 20,000 crore PET bottle industry.

Countries like the US, the UK and Japan use PET bottles to store pharmaceutical products, according to domestic pharmaceutical lobby group Indian Drug Manufacturers Association.

Medicines bottled in PET in India are also exported to the US, said the PET Container Manufacturers Association , a lobby group for the industry. Kulaste said the matter had been referred to a committee of scientists, with representatives of different ministries.